COP29 Baku Negotiating Tables - Ms Toiata Uili, of Government of Samoa and the lead negotiator for the Pacific for mitigation. (Center with yellow flower) "What’s the use of having huge amounts of monies, huge amount of climate finance to support all these adaptation and mitigation measures when the temperature is still rising? That’s the predicament right now but we will not give up, we will keep on pushing and continue to try and hold that line." November 2024 Photo: SPREP/Photo by IISDENB Mike Muzurakis
This year's United Nations climate change conference, COP30, host Brazil has announced the World Leaders' Summit will be held several days before UN negotiations start in Belém, Brazil, this November.
This was announced by the COP30 extraordinary secretary, Valter Correia, who said the decision was made by Brazil.
"This will give us time for more in-depth reflection, without the pressure from hotels or the city, and will help us better organise the event's official opening," he said in a statement.
The summit, to be held on 6-7 November, is part of the official activities of the conference, which will run from 10-21 November.
Since the Paris Agreement COP in 2015, the summit has been held at the start of the annual climate meeting.
Climate Home reported that, at previous COPs, this had been done around the middle of the conference, usually with far fewer leaders showing up.
Head of international policy at Observatório do Clima, a coalition of Brazilian civil society organisations, Claudio Angelo, said bringing the World Leaders' Summit forward this time was "the only way" to hold the event in Belém, but added it may be "detrimental to inclusivity".
"We will certainly lose on mobilisation pressure, since not everybody will be able to afford being in Belém so far in advance," he said.
Brazilian think tank the Talanoa Institute's president, Natalie Unterstell, said the risk is that "leaders make grand statements in one room while negotiators, days or weeks later, water them down in another room".
COP30 will be held in Belém, the capital of Pará state in northern Brazil.
At the previous COP29 in Azerbaijan, countries agreed to an annual finance target of US$300 billion by 2035 to help poorer countries deal with the impacts of climate change, with rich countries leading the payments.
The new goal was intended to replace developed countries' previous commitment to provide $100 billion per year in climate finance for poorer nations by 2020. That goal was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.
The COP29 agreement was criticised by developing nations, who called it insufficient, with a group of Pacific climate advocacy organisations calling it "a catastrophic failure".
"Not only did COP29 fail to deliver adequate finance, but progress also stalled on crucial issues like fossil fuel phase-out, Loss and Damage, and the Just Transition Work Plan," it said.
However, United Nations climate chief Simon Steill called the agreement an insurance policy for humanity.
"This deal will keep the clean energy boom growing and protect billions of lives. It will help all countries to share in the huge benefits of bold climate action: more jobs, stronger growth, cheaper and cleaner energy for all.
"But like any insurance policy - it only works - if the premiums are paid in full, and on time."
